Pleasanton Weekly

PUSD receives one-time windfall from state

Unexpected state revenue could mean an extra $2.5 million for district

by Glenn Wohltmann

The Pleasanton school district can look forward to some unexpected funding.

Unanticipated revenue to California will mean a $179 per student bump in average daily attendance (ADA) figures, which are used to calculate how much districts get from the state.

The news was part of Gov. Jerry Brown's revision to the budget known as the May revise.

"The May Revision reflects, as required by Proposition 98, $2.9 billion in additional funds in the current year for K-12 schools and community colleges," according to a statement from the governor's office. "The May Revision proposes that these one-time funds be used to reduce the deferral of payments to schools and community colleges, and to support the implementation of new academic standards."

Deputy Superintendent Luz Cazares said that means a windfall for the district although she pointed out the money is on a one-time basis.

"It was good news. It was really good news," Cazares said. "For us, that translates to about $2.5 million for implementation of Common Core. We would have to spend it across two years."

Common Core is a set of standards that are being implemented across the country. It focuses on depth of knowledge and requires students to do more critical thinking. It was designed so that a student could transfer to any other school in the country without difficulty and so that all high school graduates will be college ready.

The revised budget will mean that the district will begin, over the next few years, to receive payments from the state when they're due. Recently, the state opted to postpone distributing money owed to districts across the state, requiring them to do short-term borrowing to pay salaries and bills.

The governor's plan also calls for spending as much as $1.9 billion on what's called the local control funding formula. That's designed to give extra money to districts that have a high number of English language learners and poor students.

It's unknown how much Pleasanton stands to receive from the new funding formula, which would put control of some spending in the hands of the district and schools themselves.